Mount Maunganui, Nov 20: India’s stand-in skipper Hardik Pandya was one pleased man after thrashing New Zealand by 65 runs in the second T20I at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui on Sunday, calling it ‘a complete performance’.
India’s huge victory to go 1-0 up in the three-match series was set up by top-ranked T20I batter Suryakumar Yadav hitting 11 fours and seven sixes all over the park at a strike-rate of 217.65 to be unbeaten on 111 off 51 balls.
“A complete performance, absolutely can’t get better than us. Suryakumar put us 30 runs forward. After that the bowlers were very clinical. Being aggressive does not mean you take every ball on, its about body language.”
“Looking at all those, we ticked all those boxes, especially with the water due to the rain. It was quite difficult to bowl but they stuck to their plans,” said Hardik in the post-match presentation.
Hardik didn’t bowl in the match as Hooda showcased his off-spin bowling and had figures of 4/10 to close the New Zealand innings. He insisted that he would like to see more people standing up to chip in with the ball. “Sixth bowler, absolutely I have bowled lots of times. But going forward I want a number of more bowling opportunities. Not always that this will work but I want more batters to chip in with the ball.”
“Not always that bowlers will have their day but if you give them game time, it could’ve gone another way also. But today the sixth bowler Deepak stopped the runs and those two overs changed the game and put them under pressure.” (IANS)
